Mary Renck Jalongo

Therapy Dogs in Academic Libraries: A Way to Foster Student Engagement and Mitigate Self-Reported Stress during Finals

More and more modern academic libraries are turning to student engagement activities designed to welcome students into Academia, join a community of scholars, and avail themselves of the full range of resources and services that a university library can provide. One unusual, but inexpensive and highly effective method of engaging students is bringing therapy dogs into the library. This article begins by explaining how therapy dogs differ from other types of dogs and how to counter objections to library engagement activities involving canines. It then offers a research-based rationale for human-canine interaction that is consistent with an academic librarys mission. Next, the article addresses the planning/implementation phase a student engagement event involving handler/therapy dog teams, reviews the literature on successful programs at various institutions, and offers guidance to others seeking to initiate a similar program. A project of this type depends upon collaboration among faculty members, college students, support staff, volunteers, and the larger community. Finally, the article highlights results from a questionnaire administered to 449 students during a sequence of three “de-stress during exam week” events. Overall, the survey data suggest that: (1) social media was the most effective means of advertising, (2) students strongly supported the continuation of the event, and (3) 95% of the student participants considered interaction with the therapy dogs to be a means of stress reduction.

Writing for Publication

This chapter orients readers to the rewards of writing and publishing, both extrinsic and intrinsic. The metaphors that prolifi c authors use to capture the essence of the writing task, as well as novice authors’ personal metaphors for writing are examined. Readers will progress through a number of different exercises designed to address obstacles to effective writing, such as lack of confi dence, concerns about writing skills, procrastination/avoidance of writing, time constraints, counterproductive habits, and challenges faced by academic authors writing in English as a second language. Each year, a leading professional organization sends out a letter to authors who have contributed a book to their association publications. Tucked inside the envelope is a blue ribbon with the words “book author” stamped in gold capital letters; the top edge of the ribbon has an adhesive strip, suitable for affi xing it to the conference name badge. At the annual conference, these ribbons frequently are fl anked by others that read “presenter” or “board member” and they are just as eye-catching among academics as medals and ribbons are among military personnel. Yet even for these recognized and accomplished scholars, becoming a published author was once a faint, distant possibility. At one time, they were intimidated by the process, assumed that publishing was for reserved for intellectual giants of the discipline, and felt that they had little to offer by comparison. This chapter is all about more positive, productive ways of grappling with such misgivings by addressing the angst, risks, and rewards of scholarly writing. It begins by exploring understandings of what it means to be an academic author—defi ning the role and examining metaphors that capture the essence of the experience. It then turns to the rewards and challenges of writing for publication and the writing habits that support authors in overcoming obstacles. The chapter concludes with advice on working with a writing mentor and the types of reasoning that are necessary to advance thinking in a fi eld.

Promoting Children’s Well-Being: Therapy Dogs

Incorporating trained, registered, and insured dogs into animal-assisted activities has gained support in professional practice and research. This chapter begins by defining therapy dogs—both what they are and what they are not. It then provides an evidence based rationale for therapy dogs as a complementary part of animal-assisted activities. Next is a discussion of common objections to bringing dogs into a facility and practical ways to address each issue. Three main types of animal-assisted activities are discussed. The remainder of the chapter examines setting programmatic goals and concludes with a conceptualization of the partnership, participants, protocols, and products that hold the greatest promise for yielding data about initiatives that involve therapy dogs.

Keeping Children Safe: Children’s Ability to Interpret Canine Behavioral Cues and Dog Safety Interventions

Dog bites and dog-related injuries to children are an international health and safety concern. This chapter begins by examining ways that dog bites are defined and reported. Next, it discusses how children’s typical behavior can be interpreted as threatening to a canine and precipitate an incident. A synthesis of the dog safety concepts from leading professional organizations and ways to communicate these ideas to parents/families follows. We include the relevant findings from 50 interviews with children between 4 and 14 years of age (see Appendix A). Children were presented with photos of aggressive, playful, and fearful dogs. First, they identified the dogs’ emotional state and, in a follow-up question, whether or not they would exercise caution in interacting with the dog in the photo. Consistent with previous research, we found that children were able to identify openly aggressive or playful dogs most accurately; however, fearful dogs were a source of confusion. The second question for each photo focused on whether or not children would choose to interact with a dog displaying the behaviors pictured. Children’s responses were not consistent with recommendations on preventing dog bites; most of the time—particularly with fearful dogs—the majority indicated that they would interact. Of particular importance to injury prevention was the response to the situation of a lost dog. Children routinely tried to catch, contain, and act as rescuers for lost dogs that were unfamiliar to them. The chapter concludes with recommendations on working with families/communities, resources that educators and professionals in related fields can use to prevent dog-related injuries to children and suggested ways to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions intended to prevent dog bites and dog-related injuries to children.

From a Research Project to a Journal Article

Very few dissertations make a successful transition to an article or book, even though degree recipients are encouraged by their committee members to pursue publication. From an editor’s perspective, the problem here is that the authors of these lengthy documents do not know how to distill a work to its very essence or how to revise it for a readership beyond the dissertation committee. Although this problem has been discussed in the literature, practical guidance has been lacking. This chapter explains how to plan a study, collect the data, and fashion it into a research article. The chapter offers a widely accepted structure (IMRaD) that guides the writing of a research report and supports publication from the outset. It clearly explains how to write the title, abstract, and each section of a research report. In addition, it offers a checklist for self-evaluation of a research manuscript and a series of steps necessary to prepare the work for publication. The many activities included have value both for inexperienced and experienced writers.

From Attending to Presenting at Conferences

This chapter will guide the reader through the process of proposing a presentation at a major professional conference. An orientation to the different venues and categories of presentations is included. This chapter offers step-by-step instructions for generating a conference proposal as well as helpful templates for drafting a brief description of a conference session, a schedule for a workshop session, and a structure for conference proposal. The chapter concludes with a strategy for converting a successful conference presentation into a professional journal article.

From Aspiring Author to Published Scholar

This chapter orients readers to the rewards of writing and publishing, both extrinsic and intrinsic. The metaphors that prolific authors use to capture the essence of the writing task, as well as novice authors’ personal metaphors for writing are examined. Readers will progress through a number of different exercises designed to address obstacles to effective writing, such as lack of confidence, concerns about writing skills, procrastination/avoidance of writing, time constraints, counterproductive habits, and challenges faced by academic authors writing in English as a second language.

From Qualitative Research to a Journal Article

There is a world view and art to writing qualitative research that can be misconstrued, particularly by those inexperienced with qualitative research methods. The chapter identifies common “missteps” in writing the qualitative research report. Chapter 8 walks the reader through each important writing task associated with qualitative research, from the title and abstract to each section of the manuscript. The chapter also includes guidelines and checklists that writers can use to assess each component of a manuscript and generate publishable qualitative research articles.

From Unpublishable to Publishable

There are many persistent myths about writing for publication. Inexperienced authors sometimes hold on to the vain hope that there is a facile way to generate manuscripts that earn positive evaluations from reviewers and editors. It is a common misconception that successful authors generate manuscripts with ease and that their success is attributable to innate talent. Yet, as this chapter documents, highly regarded authors report that writing well is a persistent challenge that demands a considerable investment of time and mental energy. Chapter 2 explains the distinction between ordinary writing and publishable academic writing in terms of voice and style. It uses illustrative examples to clarify these important attributes and includes a variety of activities that assist authors in moving beyond the “writer’s block” stage. The chapter concludes with ethical issues in scholarship, including: intentional and accidental plagiarism, policies concerning simultaneous submissions, and the responsible conduct of research.

From Novice to Expert

The final chapter of the book will assist readers in assessing their progress and setting future goals for scholarly publication. It advises writers to take stock of the human and material resources that will assist them in meeting their publishing goals, such as: seeking out professional development opportunities, identifying suitable mentors, locating online resources, and participating in writing support groups. This chapter addresses the promise—and the pitfalls—of collaborative writing. Readers are provided with research-based advice that supports them in making good decisions about works that are co-authored, arriving at shared understandings of each author’s responsibilities, deciding how credit will be allocated, renegotiating agreements when situations change, and abandoning unproductive collaborations without losing investments of time and work. Finally, teacher/scholar/authors in Academia are encouraged to rethink the “publish or perish” mantra and replace it with a more growth-supporting concept; namely, publish and flourish.